New Aaliyah song surfaces; Belated birthday present to her fans?

Aaliyah: R&B singer, movie star, Drake’s imaginary girlfriend. However you know the ’90s starlet, Aaliyah would have turned 34 this past Wednesday, a detail that wasn’t lost on The Twitters this week when the late musician’s name became a trending topic.

So is it a tribute or merely a timely coincidence that a previously unreleased Aaliyah tune is suddenly spreading online?

The song in question, called Quit Hatin’, appears to have surfaced Thursday. Spin reports the song was released by Aaliyah’s estate in honour of her birthday, though citing Punchbowl Blog, the magazine also notes that another version of Quit Hatin’ may have surfaced online months before.

How the song — new or not — might figure in a long-rumoured posthumous Aaliyah album is just as shady. Since last year, Drake has hinted that he’s interested in executive producing an album of his idol’s unreleased material. At first, long-time Aaliyah collaborators Missy Elliott and Timbaland were thought to be involved, though both musicians said they had not been approached.

“I know they trying to drop some Aaliyah records, but if he do it, it should be with me and Missy,” Timbaland told radio station Power 105.1 last August, addressing reports of the Drake-helmed project. “The proper way for him to do that would be for me, him and Missy to be all on the record. But to put it on his record, would just not be right.”

But enough of that. “Quit Hatin,” if you will. The song itself hinges on a wispy vocal track — recorded by Aaliyah before the 2001 plane crash that left her dead at 22 — wrapped in some spare and shimmery trap-n’-b noise courtesy some more contemporary names. (Fuse.tv identifies one of the song’s producers as Knotch, a guy who’s worked with Chris Brown and Kelly Rowland.)